Lewy body dementia (LBD), including dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD) is the second most common type of degenerative dementia, and the complex array of cognitive, neuropsychiatric, motor, sleep and autonomic features results in significant emotional and economic burden for patients, families and society in North America and worldwide. While LBD is a minor focus in other international conferences more devoted to Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, the International DLB Conferences (IDLBC) have been the only conferences have focused on LBD. The previous four DLB focused conferences have had a focus on the developing and updating the DLB criteria, with limited focus on PDD. These conferences have been important opportunities for clinicians, researchers, trainees, caregivers and policy makers from around the world to share knowledge with the goal of improving care for patients, a broader focus for all LBD and for research (versus criteria discussion) is needed. From early 2018 to the present, the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health and the Continuing Medical Education office have been planning a June 2019 International Lewy Body Dementia Conference to be held in Las Vegas Nevada. The conference will be organized by LBD clinicians and researchers including Drs. Brad Boeve, Kejal Kantarci, James Leverenz, Ian McKeith, Zoltan Mari, Marwan Sabbagh, and Debby Tsuang, with guidance and support from the Lewy Body Dementia Association. A Patient and Carepartner Program Committee has also been established. The conference programs are being designed to offer attendees an opportunity to learn about a broad spectrum of topics related to LBD and to expand opportunities for investigators and clinicians to share their LBD focused work. Two tracks have been developed: 1) the Scientific Track to transpire over days 1-3, 2) the Patient and Carepartner Track to transpire over days 1 and 2 concurrent with participation in the Scientific Track LBD overview on day 1 and day 3 program. Consistent with theme of increased scientific content, sessions will be focused, except for Day 1 morning, on new research and there will be two days of poster sessions. The patient/care partner track will include opportunities for guided tours of the posters on both Days 1 and 2. The scientific presentations will allow experts from diverse backgrounds to share recent discoveries, insights and opinions; thereby promoting research collaboration, consensuses development, training opportunities, and knowledge translation across disciplines. The concurrent Patient and Care partner Track will provide patients, family members, care partners, clinicians, interested laypersons and representatives from advocacy groups an update on many practical issues relating to diagnosis, management and optimization of quality of life, as well as review the latest research advances and provide opportunities to interact directly with the scientific community. A major point of emphasis for this conference is the inclusion of junior investigators and promoting the participation of under-served populations. Harmonization of DLB research methodology across continents will also be emphasized in a consortium session. It is anticipated that the 2019 conference will attract more than 300 national and international scientific delegates, more than 100 patients and care partners, and representatives from advocacy groups, industry and funding agencies. Although the majority of the necessary funding will come from conference registration, additional external financial support is being sought in order to keep costs reasonable. The specific use of the funds requested in this application is to support registration and travel expenses for i) faculty who have been invited to speak at the Scientific Sessions, and ii) junior researchers (trainees).
This application is for funds to support the International Lewy Body Dementia Conference. This conference is a forum for research scientists, clinicians, and other health care professionals to share the latest information from each of their disciplines. In addition to highlighting the progress made in the various areas of research, this conference will provide an opportunity for patients and care partners to be exposed to new knowledge and to interact with researchers, clinicians and other patients and carepartners.
